I was listening to NPR a few days back as the host talked with someone regarding her workplace.

I tuned in during the middle of the conversation and I didn’t catch her name, profession or even her location.

Now you can ask the obvious questions: “Didn’t he say he was listening?” and “Where is this going?”

I’m glad you asked. I tuned in when they started talking about the floor in her shop, or store, or whatever it was. Apparently she was having trouble figuring out what to put on the floor.

Many considerations are involved when someone chooses flooring: color, style, traffic type, room use, durability and cost are a few. Another is creativity.

Some creative flooring experts have been known to cut intricate inlays that vary from crests and seals of organizations, maps of lakes, the surrounding countryside, still life arrangements in glass and terra cotta.

Any time there’s a special design involved, you can watch the cash register spinning in anticipation of a big sale. It turns out this was a concern for the radio show guest. So she decided to cover her floor for mere pennies per square foot. Literally.

What ensued was several weeks of gluing pennies to the floor. Seriously.

She enlisted the help

of friends and they

spent about 400 hours placing the coins.

I never did hear if it was covered with a clear coating or not. But I can picture an old-fashioned coating of the deco-pour stuff that was popular many years back.

Remember how restaurants would cover the tables with fishing lures and tiny boat anchors? Or small shells and pictures of friends vacationing in Key West? And how the whole thing was covered in a thick layer of poured plastic?

Now think of what you could do to the game room floor. Snapshots of the kids at day camp along with the entire set of school pictures laid out next to a couple of report cards. Add in a favorite Lego block or a doll dress and Bam! — you’ve just started a new fad.

Think about it. It could be bigger than the Pet Rock, which could also be chipped into small pieces on the kitchen floor. We’ll call it “Deco Floor!”

We just might have the next big thing in decorating About the House.

Rob Kinsey has been a licensed builder for 25 years and is a home inspector with more than 15 years of experience.